Calls for lifetime bans for sick songs and gestures

Charlton presented Rush with flowers in memory of the Hillsborough disasterPhil Noble/Reuters

A member of the Hillsborough Families Support Group is calling for lifetime bans for fans who make offensive gestures or sing insulting chants about deaths in football tragedies.

Manchester United fans joined in with Liverpool supporters in the pre-match tributes to the 96 Hillsborough victims yesterday lunchtime. However, as Anfield emptied, chants of “Always the victims, it’s never your fault” rang out from the away end in response to home fans making aeroplane gestures as they filed to the exits.

United supporters also made reference to the Heysel stadium distaster in which 39 Juventus fans died in violence before the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool, resulting in English clubs being banned from taking part in European club competition until 1990.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the…

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